1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a security system for checking a person's authority to pass a check point into a high security area, and particularly to such a system combined with an automatic gate system which is controlled by the security system.
2. Description of the Related Art
At places where high security is needed, such as a computer center, a laboratory, or a government facility, a security check requiring use of an identification card (hereinafter ID card) is often conducted.
FIG. 1 illustrates an example of conventional ID card 1, which comprises a photographic field 2 having a photograph of an ID card owner, a data field 3 which may be read visually, providing the owner's name, date of birth and ID number, the expiration date of the ID card, and other personal information, and a machine readable data field 4 providing the same data in an adequate manner to be read by a scanner, magnetic card reader, or other conventional data reading devices. For example, it would be possible to form the machine readable field 4 by printing in magnetic ink.
FIG. 2 illustrates an example of a conventional checkpoint security system 11. In this figure, the system 11 comprises a terminal 6 including a CRT display, keyboard 10 connected to the terminal 6, a hard disk drive 7 connected to the terminal 6, a communication line 8, and a remote data base 9 connected to the terminal 6 via the communication line 8.
In this example, suppose that all of the ID card owner's data is stored in the remote data base 9 and a part of the data is transferred to the hard disk drive 7 via the communication line 8 to use the hard disk drive 7 as a distributed data base, if necessary.
When a person desiring entry through the security check point (hereinafter "passer") 5 with an ID card 1 approaches the security point, an examiner or operator 12 first examines the ID card to compare the figure in the photograph field 2, and the passer 5. Then, the examiner 12 reads the contents of the field 3 and decides whether the passer 5 should be allowed to pass or not.
If the examiner 12 has a doubt as to whether the passer 5 and the person shown and described on ID card 1 are the same, the examiner, can enter some identifying data (hereafter "key data"), such as the owner's name, the ID number, or other information which uniquely belongs to the ID card owner and is provided in the data field 3, by means of the key board 10, search corresponding personal data (hereinafter ID data) in the hard disk drive 7 or remote data base 9. If there is no such corresponding ID data in the data bases, the examiner 12 denies entry to the passer 5.
Additionally, it would be possible for the examiner 12 to use a conventional electronic card reader such as an O.C.R. or magnetic card reader (not shown) to enter the key data from the machine readable data field 4.
However, if someone steals an available ID card from the card owner and pastes his own photograph on the ID card, the examiner 12 will have no way to identify the passer 5 because the figure in the photograph field 2 will correspond to the passer 5 even though he is not the real owner, and all of the data in the ID card 1 will exist in at least one of the data bases 7 and 9.
Further, if the system 11 is organized to require the passer 5 to enter a password or some identifying key data which is not described on the ID card 1, it might result in an occurrence that the actual card owner cannot pass because the card owner has forgotten the password or identifying key data.
Further, if the examiner 12 conducts an oral inquiry of every passer using the key data described in the ID card 1, it will require a significant period of time to perform the examinations.